Cop punches woman in the face lol! Police brutality?

Tuna_Fish_Riot · June 17, 2010, 5:02am

my favorite part was when the black girl got punched lol

Return_of_Shiki · June 17, 2010, 5:07am

Man, it gets better and better:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012122660_coppunch16m.html

Confronted by another incident caught on videotape, Seattle police have ordered a sweeping review into a jaywalking stop in which an officer punched a 17-year-old girl in the face after she shoved him.

Interim Police Chief John Diaz ordered the review of the department’s training procedures after a videotape of the incident was repeatedly broadcast on Seattle television stations and media websites.

On the video, Officer Ian P. Walsh is seen punching the girl in the face after she tries to intervene in the arrest of a 19-year-old friend near Franklin High School on Monday afternoon. Police arrested the girl, Angel L. Rosenthal, and her friend, Marilyn Ellen Levias, both of whom have criminal records.

The department’s response to the incident in Rainier Valley came as Mayor Mike McGinn is nearing a decision on a new permanent chief: either Diaz or East Palo Alto, Calif., Police Chief Ron Davis.

It also comes as the department is conducting a criminal investigation into the actions of two other officers who were caught on videotape April 17 kicking a prone Latino man, with one using ethnically inflammatory language.

Acting Deputy Chief Nick Metz, speaking at a hastily called news conference Tuesday morning, expressed concerns about Walsh’s conduct, saying the department was “withholding judgment” pending a separate internal investigation into the officer’s action by the department’s civilian-led Office of Professional Accountability.

His comments represented a stark reversal of the department’s preliminary statement Monday night, when a spokesman said Walsh had acted appropriately.

Walsh, 39, who joined the department in November 2006, has been temporarily placed in the department’s training unit to allow him to review his tactics, Metz said.

Walsh’s handling of the incident was backed by the head of the Seattle police union, who said the department’s review is necessary but that the officer had been defending himself.

Metz said the review of training procedures is not meant as a criticism of the officer’s actions, but would examine department tactics to see if they could be improved.

He said the review would examine not only the punch, but the entire situation surrounding the jaywalking stop.

Rosenthal and Levias are African American; Walsh is white.

Metz said he contacted leaders of Seattle’s African-American community Monday night, telling them that an investigation would be conducted.

James Kelly, chief executive officer of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, said Seattle police called him Monday to alert him to the incident.

Kelly, during a news conference Tuesday with African-American community leaders, called Walsh’s punch an overreaction. “The provocation by this 17-year-old kid may have presented a confrontation situation, but the use of violence in the form of a full punch in the face was just plain wrong,” he said in a statement.

“This is another case where we are standing here, saying, ‘shame on you’ to the Seattle police,” he said, referring to the April 17 incident.

In that incident, also videotaped, two officers kicked and stomped a prone robbery suspect. One officer kicked the Latino man while he was lying on the sidewalk and shouted, “I’m going to beat the [expletive] Mexican piss out of you, homey. You feel me?” Officers later let the man go after realizing he was the wrong person.

Kelly said he wanted to be clear that what the 17-year-old girl had done Monday was wrong and that her actions “only helped escalate an already tense situation. … I am making no excuses for her. But two wrongs don’t make a right.”

Jennifer Shaw, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, said in a written statement that Monday’s incident wasn’t an isolated one.

“The SPD has a long history of allowing jaywalking citations to escalate into use-of-force situations,” Shaw said. “The pattern is very predictable: The officer sees a jaywalker, orders the person to come to him, gets angry when the jaywalker either doesn’t respond or argues, and** ends up either in a physical confrontation or an arrest for an obstruction charge or both.**”

The incident occurred about 3 p.m. Monday near Franklin High, where staff and the school district’s central office had requested increased police monitoring because they were concerned about the number of students jaywalking.

According to police, Walsh, working in a patrol car, saw several people jaywalking on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South, just south of Rainier Avenue South, despite a nearby pedestrian overpass.

Walsh tried to stop a group of females when one woman, later identified as Levias, began walking away, according to an incident report.

Walsh told Levias she must identify herself so he could issue her a citation or she would face arrest for obstruction, the report said. Levias continued to walk away, prompting Walsh to grab her upper arm with his right hand, the report said.

At that point, Levias said something like “get the [expletive] off me,” tensed her body and began to resist, the report said.

Walsh placed her upper body on the hood of his patrol car in trying to handcuff her. Levias began twisting around and pulled away, ignoring Walsh’s command to stop resisting as she continued to struggle with him.

While Walsh tried to handcuff Levias, Rosenthal, the 17-year-old, approached Walsh, grabbing and pushing him. Walsh responded by punching Rosenthal.

Levias was arrested for allegedly obstructing an officer, a gross misdemeanor. Rosenthal was arrested on suspicion of third-degree assault on an officer, a felony.

During the incident, a hostile crowd of onlookers gathered and appeared to be cheering Levias and Rosenthal, the police report said.

Neither Levias nor Rosenthal is a student at Franklin. There is no record that Rosenthal ever attended Seattle Public Schools, a district spokeswoman said. Levias is a graduate of the district’s Interagency Academy, an alternative program, according to the district. She received her diploma in February.

Sgt. Rich O’Neill, president of the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild, said on Tuesday that the officer acted properly in the face of resistance and the push.

"The officer had every right to defend himself and use force," O’Neill said. “I didn’t see anything that was wrong.”

Nonetheless, O’Neill said the department’s command staff was correctly handling the situation. “They had to send it out for review,” O’Neill said. “These are the times we live in.”

Rosenthal appeared Tuesday in King County Juvenile Court, where supporters said that she lives at the Virginia Miller House, a residential facility with behavior-modification programs for teen girls, but was in contact with her family. It’s unclear why the girl is not living with her family.

King County Superior Court pro-tem Judge Ann Danieli found that Seattle police had probable cause to arrest Rosenthal for investigation of third-degree assault and obstruction. However, the judge agreed with the girl’s defense attorney that she should be released.

**Marilyn Jamerson, Rosenthal’s aunt, spoke after the hearing in support of the girl.

“She’s perfect; that’s why we call her Angel,” Jamerson said. “She was named Angel for a reason.”**

The teen was ordered back to court on Friday. Charges are expected to be filed by Thursday, according to prosecutors.

Levias was released on her personal recognizance Monday and is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in Seattle Municipal Court.

Previous arrests

Rosenthal was charged in November with second-degree robbery. According to prosecutors, she punched a 15-year-old boy in the face while she and a group of youths were on their way to a rave in South Seattle last Aug. 28. The boy told police that **his cellphone and $20 were stolen in the incident. A 14-year-old boy told police that he was punched in the head and his hat was stolen.

Authorities say the case was dismissed when the boys refused to testify.
**
In April 2008, Rosenthal was charged with third-degree theft after she allegedly stole a minivan in Tukwila, prosecutors said. Kent police said she used a screwdriver to break the ignition and start the vehicle.

The charge was later amended to theft of a motor vehicle. Rosenthal was given a deferred disposition ? charges would be dropped if she stayed out of trouble ? because it was a first-time offense, said Ian Goodhew, deputy chief of staff for Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg.

**Levias was charged in February 2009 with third-degree assault after she allegedly pushed a King County sheriff’s deputy **down.

According to charging documents, on Feb. 3, 2009, deputies were called to the Ruth Dykeman Children’s Center, a Burien center for troubled girls, in response to a report that Levias was being abusive toward staff. When Levias was confronted by Deputy Amy Zarelli, she pushed the female deputy, causing her to fall, charging papers said.

Levias was given a deferred disposition because it was a first-time offense, Goodhew said.

SPD needs to step their game up, but these girls were definitely not delicate little flowers.

What say you, white-knighters?

BullDancer · June 17, 2010, 5:11am

Good shit… that hoodrat got the Guile spinning backfist… well good to know that cop is pretty much off the hook for his so called “police brutality”…

BEWD · June 17, 2010, 5:19am

Fixed.

Jushiness · June 17, 2010, 5:20am

“Whoever puts their hand upon me to govern me is a usurper, a tyrant, and I declare them my enemy.”

Doc_Holliday · June 17, 2010, 5:24am

Bottom line for those chastising the police officer:

Unless you have a somewhat decent understanding of the Use of Force Continuum, officer/subject factors, special knowledge, and totality of circumstances… STFU because you have no damn clue what you’re talking about.

BEWD · June 17, 2010, 5:28am

^I know fuck all about that, but imo this wouldn’t be as big an issue were it a dude, even if he was black.

I’m personally against hitting girls for the most part, but not because of some bullshit “oh they’re the gentle sex, a real man wouldn’t do that.” No, fuck that, I just know if it comes down to a man vs a woman, it’s her word against yours and she’s already won the presumption of innocence.

fully support the cop, as I wouldn’t attempt that shit those girls did with a person on the street, let alone an officer with a gun.

Jushiness · June 17, 2010, 5:28am

You’re right. Those Jaywalkers sure looked threatening. In fact punching one of them in the face over their minor transgression couldn’t possibly have backfired and caused an uproar amongst the group of men watching.

Thanks for the tip there keyboard warrior.

Lucky for that cop the Law protects assholes like him, and the group of men had no balls.

Doc_Holliday · June 17, 2010, 5:33am

Remember where I said “Unless you have a decent understanding of … or STFU”? Yeah, that applies to you.

Jushiness · June 17, 2010, 5:36am

Go keyboad Warrior GO! [media=youtube]eGW8L61KzAU&playnext_from=TL&videos=yZ5MQ4CJWv4[/media]

Akelexre · June 17, 2010, 5:38am

While I feel no empathy with the women or sympathy toward the cop, I’m less angry with both of them and I’m ultimately annoyed at the system which gave this cop a quota which forced him to stop and ticket FUCKING JAYWALKERS.

Rhio2k · June 17, 2010, 5:45am

Well, he’s lucky he was only murdered into a state of semi-lucidity.

PlatinumBD · June 17, 2010, 5:47am

fishjie:

do you know how many ghetto blacks are in seattle? one of my friends who went to high school in the hood with me, nearly was murdered to death by a bunch of black dudes. they jumped him after school and beat his head in with a trash can, he would have died if security hadn’t come in time. in court when axed why they did so, they responded, “cause he looked at us funny”. another one of my friends was randomly punched in the face by a black dude, he had to get stitches.

i can’t tell you how many white dudes at my high school were beat up by hood gangster thugs because they were white. i’m talkin doo rag wearing, weed smoking, 40 drinking, saggy baggy pants, hood rats. and you know why? cause the neighborhood was ghetto as fuck.

the nice parts of seattle are secluded from the gross parts.

That’s deep…I try to elude myself from shit like that. I have friends who do the shit you’re talking about…like straight up jumpin dudes for no reason. I try to tell them that the shit they do will always come back on them, but they don’t listen. One of them for example, he jumped some dude on halloween, and took his shit. There’s a game here called “knockout”, where a group of niggas will get together, and drop anydude they see crossing the street. For no reason at all. If they don’t know you, they’ll whoop on you until you go to sleep. Well that’s what he was playing, with some other friends (not listing names). About a month later he got jumped at a house party (blood vs crip, hood vs hood bullshit). He was ok, but it could have been worse. I’m like the wise one out of the crew, people don’t wanna hear advice until something happans.

And I wasn’t dissing all of Seattle, my mistake for making it seem that way, I was just dissing the kids in that video, so don’t take it to heart. I just got in an arguement with that other guy for coming at me like he did, but he mis understood me too, so my apologies to everyone who lives in Seattle.

Mecha-Shiva · June 17, 2010, 5:50am

That intersection is known for having annoying pedestrians who basically walk across the street regardless of whether a car is coming.

SoVi3t · June 17, 2010, 5:51am

man i feel so safe living in Canada lol

Scharlachrot · June 17, 2010, 5:52am

**Shove a officer and expect a retaliation, especially if he’s in a crowded area by himself and in the middle of ticketing someone who’s acting crazy.

Hell shove anyone and expect a retaliation, i’m with the cop on this one, he was doing his job and defending himself from the unknown of the situation

Infact if you look at how he handles things, when he has his arm wrapped around the girl he doesn’t use force, cause he isn’t trying to hurt her.**

Galactic · June 17, 2010, 5:53am

God, I fucking HATE people who do that shit. I mean, you see a car coming and a don’t walk sign, what do you think is the better idea? Waiting like 1 second for the car to pass you by or just meandering out unto the street, causing the car to slam its brakes to avoid hitting you and possibly causing an accident? WTF goes through the minds of some of these pedestrians?

^_-;

PlatinumBD · June 17, 2010, 5:56am

I would too, lol. America is hell on Earth, I don’t care what anybody tells you. Times can be good or bad, but in the end, it’s hell.

Return_of_Shiki · June 17, 2010, 5:58am

I’m guessing you conveniently failed to read the article I posted which clearly states both girls in question have been arrested for violent crimes before…INCLUDING ASSAULTING A FEMALE DEPUTY.

But I guess you’re right…from the mind of an asshole, these girls were obviously no threat.
Thumbs up soldier.

rcaido · June 17, 2010, 6:00am

How the fuck would you know they had “violent” crimes before the incident occur?